Mount Adams

Mount Adams - 12276 Feet - Washington's 2nd Highest Mountain

Mount Adams from Trout Lake.

Trip Report (6/10 and 6/11 2005):
One of my goals this summer was to attempt Mount Adams in Washington state. I saw it from Hood a few years back and was impressed. For a few months, plans never really materialized, until Eric Larsen invited me to tag along with a group (Eric P., Kathy, Brandon, Kevin, Emily, and Anna) he was leading to up Adams. Instead of the day hike I had planned, Eric's plans were to camp on the mountain and summit late night/early morning on day 2. I liked this idea, as 1) I had never camped in a cold and snowy environment and 2) because it kind of mimics the summit bid on Rainier (minus 1000 feet of gain each day) and I wanted to see how I reacted to that.

Mount Adams is a volcano and the second highest peak in the state of Washington, highpoint of Yakima County, and has 8100' of prominence. It dominates the view for miles around! We utilized the South Spur route. This route starts as a trail, the becomes a snow slog to the base of Piker's Peak. There is no crevasse danger on this route, but an ice ax and crampons are used by most on the upper slopes.

I left Boise on Thursday with the group and had a restless night listening to train whistles every half an hour at our hotel in La Grande, Oregon. On Friday we headed to Trout Lake, Washington to pickup permits and poop bags. The weather was partly cloudy, but we got a good view of the peak on the way into Trout Lake. Eventually we made it to the trailhead and began the hike in.

The hike in started out on a very wide and dry trail. Eventually, that lead to snow patches, then all snow at around 7000'. Here we did our best to follow other hikers tracks and find cairns. We did alright, but I wonder how those that dayhike the mountain find that stuff in the dark?! Most of the hike was easy, but the heavy pack got a little tiresome on the final 500' to the Lunch Counter. The hike in took us a little over 4 hours. At the Lunch Counter (or thereabouts), we dug out tent sites and then prepared meals and melted drinking water. While the company, views, and food were great... the wind was biting cold and we were driven into our tents early.

My feet had been cold when I went to bed and I am a cold sleeper, so I expected to wake up to freezing feet. However, when I had to leave the tent at 11PM for a latrine break, they were fine. One other thing that was fine, was the scenery around me. The sky was perfectly clear, with incredibly bright stars. I could see lights from several small towns to the south of the peak, and some very bright lights to the southwest (Portland likely). The northwest horizon had a crescent moon that lit up the mountain enough to see without a headlamp. Oh yeah... the wind had stopped blowing.

At 2:30 AM, Eric stopped by to discuss the situation with us. The wind had started blowing again and was quite strong. He wanted to postpone things a bit and wait out the wind. I wanted to stay in my warm bag, so he had me at "let's wait". When Eric returned a few hours later, he remarked that the wind had died down a bit and said we'd better get going for the summit. 5 of the 8 of us would be going and while getting my gear ready and filling water bottles my feet were getting cold. I didn't want to ruin anyone's warm breakfast, but I needed to get moving, so I set out with Kevin and Brandon. Eric and Emily followed soon after and were with right behind us (or with us) on the climb to the summit. After about 30 minutes we reached the slope that led to Piker's Peak (the false summit before Adams). We put on crampons at this point. I was a bit cold because of the wind, but climbing in just windpro fleece on top and bottom. We moved quicker than our estimates and found clear skies and manageable wind when we topped out on the ridge and could finally see the summit. The snow on the slopes had been great, very firm for cramponing and somebody had kicked steps when the snow was soft making for great stairs when needed.

After a traverse over to the base of Adams on a really neat flat area, we broke before heading up the easy slopes of Adams on still great snow. The wind and cold were worse here, but that made for perfect conditions for me, as I wasn't sweating like usual, nor was I overly cold. 3 hours after leaving camp we were on the summit, where views of Rainier and Hood were quite impressive. After some high fives, a bite to eat, and some photos it was time to head back down (before freezing).

The down climb to camp was uneventful. The snow was still too hard for much glissading, so we hiked down most of the way and glissaded the last 400 or 500'. After breaking down camp and repacking, the group marched out. We pretty much glissaded anything steep enough to glissade, including one steep glissade that allowed about 1/2 the group to also practice their self-arrest skills, myself included :-) Other than that, it snowed a bit down low and some rangers were kind enough to point us to a spring that had incredibly good water. A nice end to a great couple of days on the mountain.

Thanks Eric for leading the trip and the teaching and decision making you provided. Thanks to everyone else for your camaraderie, sharing, and everything else!

Trip stats:
Time: 10 to 12 hours of hiking (I didn't really keep track)
Length: 14 miles
Cumulative Elevation Gain: 6700 feet
Class (difficulty): 2

Map:
Topo map of the peak.

Route:
South Spur

Pictures: Click on the pictures below to see the full-size version.


Adams closeup from near Trout Lake.	Adams approach. This is our group on a steep slope.	Piker's Peak... our first good view of the upper mountain.


Lower camp (25 feet below high camp).	My tent and another at high camp. It was cold!	Clouds below Mount Adams as seen during our first break.


Mount Hood during our first break.	The group resting just before the summit push.	The summit. Notice the hikers on the left, the crevasses on the right.


Mount Rainier from the summit.	Kevin Coble on top.